


Tied up in Gordian knots

by Petra



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Caning, Dom/sub, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-30
Updated: 2012-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-30 08:15:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/329692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petra/pseuds/Petra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam can deal with being back in time or with discovering that Gene is his long-lost and no longer lamented soul-bondmate. Both at once is too much. And then there's the culturally normal D/s. AU from canon in the obvious ways and one less obvious one. Ten drabbles tell the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tied up in Gordian knots

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Unbound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/286147) by [Cesare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cesare/pseuds/Cesare), [helens78](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78). 



Everyone started to feel their soulmate at different times. Sam started when he was eleven--a little early, but he was a lonely boy, so his mother reckoned it was a good thing for him.

The next year, his soulmate died. It tore a hole in Sam's psyche like every such loss, though they'd not met.

It never quite healed. They never did.

Sam became a police officer; like the military, they preferred unbonded people, whose deaths would not drive a partner mad with grief. He wed his job, heart and--nearly--soul.

And then he was in an accident.

*

There was a pressure in Sam's head matching the one in his stomach, and when he met Hunt's eyes for the first time his head felt ready to burst.

"You have got to be joking," Hunt said, and punched Sam again.

"What the hell--" Sam gasped.

Hunt dragged him up by his collar and glared at him. "Are you bonded?"

"He died. Years ago." Sam shuddered, thinking of how strange things were. If he'd travelled in time--

"You sure about that?" Hunt asked.

The pressure got stronger.

"I need a drink," Sam said.

"We've some work to do first, Tyler."

*

Drinking did not do half enough to ease the pressure. "It's like I'm twelve again," Sam said, half to Nelson, half to his pint. "Somewhere there's somebody listening."

"Sure there is," Nelson said. "Long as you're buying a round."

"No, in here." Sam tapped his temple.

"Ah. Most beautiful thing in the world, that is." Nelson smiled at him, lowering his voice. "So it's like you're new-bonded all over again?"

Sam sighed. "Something like that."

"Good luck finding them."

It took all Sam's willpower not to look down the bar at Hunt, who was not looking at him. "Thanks."

*

It took three days before Hunt broke down Sam's door. "This is bloody stupid," he said.

Sam dragged himself out of his cot, wishing he'd slept more than an hour. "What are you doing here?"

"As if you don't know."

A first kiss between bondmates should have been sweet and tender, not rough and tasting of early mornings, drinking all night, stewed tea, and fags. There was a rush, an easing of pressure, and Sam swore between kisses.

"All right, then, on your knees," and he expected--anything but Hunt, Gene, sinking down like he belonged on Sam's awful carpet.

*

"They'll kick us both off the force," Gene said after, doing up his shirt.

Sam didn't know when the regulations had changed. "Then we'll lie."

Gene scowled. "They'll know. We'll fall into step, easy as anything. If I catch your thoughts. If you catch mine."

"They'll think we're working together well. Chris and Ray walk in step all the time. You don't think they're--"

"Christ, no."

Sam nodded once. "Then we'll fight, same as before. No one will believe you'd sub for me and still throw a punch."

Gene grinned, bright and fierce. "Might do, if they knew me well enough."

*

The trouble with pretending to be interested in women was that every second Sam was doing it, he had Gene in the back of his mind, thinking furious jealousy at him. There were no words to it, just a throbbing sense that WPC Cartwright should be subjected to the worst kinds of torture.

If Sam was still unbonded, he would've found Annie lovely. There was a hollowness in her eyes that was familiar, and she was clever and beautiful.

He was absolutely awful at acting like he wanted her enough to convince her.

At least the lads saw him try.

*

Joni Newton thought he was unbonded, too. That was worse, and so were the rumors that went round the station after--Tyler's a secret sub, waiting for someone to claim him.

"You're not, are you?" Gene asked that night.

"No, damn it." Sam tangled his fingers in Gene's hair and pulled him down for a kiss as rough as their first. "Let go of the idea that all tops are sadists and all subs are masochists. It's old fashioned even for you."

"Then you don't want me to tie you down?"

"I'll let you know when I'm in the mood."

*

Sometimes Sam heard his mum's voice in the television, but it was farther away every night. When he was sleeping at Gene's, he didn't hear it at all.

The sounds of what might've been the real world were weaker than the emotions in his head, his and Gene's, increasingly in sync, their bond growing stronger daily.

Meeting his father threw Sam into such a state that Gene tossed him into Lost and Found. "What in hell's going on?"

"Nothing," Sam said.

Gene punched him in earnest. "You can't lie to me, Tyler."

He told the truth. And Gene knew it.

*

"I am not a figment of your bloody imagination," Gene said, six hours later.

Sam held onto the rope at his wrists and hissed through his teeth. He'd demanded every stroke and told Gene where to place them, how good he was, but the burning pain didn't clear his head. "I don't want you to be. But sometimes I've dreamed--"

"Shit." Gene threw down the cane in his hands. "What would your dream bondmate never do?"

Sam couldn't think at first. When he knew, he didn't want to say it, and he knew Gene could feel how conflicted he was.

*

Vic Tyler was dead--disappeared, in the police report, but Gene told Sam the truth.

Hadn't been able to hide it.

Sam felt cold all over, except for the lingering stripes. "I don't know if that makes you real or a nightmare," he said into Gene's shoulder, holding onto him like he was the only warm thing in the city.

Gene sighed. "Nightmares don't feel this good."

"Only the worst kind." Sam kissed him, waiting for things to turn horrific.

They stayed the same, no more horrific than the 1970's ever were.

Sam never decided whether that was enough.


End file.
